Pictures: Netflix
One of the projects from Zack Snyder at Netflix that never came to release is Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas. Below, we’re going back in time to look through the timeline of the project at Netflix and what actually happened to the animated prequel.
Now, the TL;DR is that Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas will likely never see the light of day beyond concept art surfacing.
First unveiled in September 2020, the project would be the first animated project in the works between Zack Snyder and Netflix, with Jay Oliva attached to serve as showrunner, with both scheduled to direct episodes.
Soon after, Netflix unveiled the voice cast for Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas in October 2020. New additions include Joe Manganiello as Rose, Christian Slater as Torrance, Harry Lennix as Boorman, Ross Butler as Chen, Anya Chalotra as Lucilia, Vanessa Hudgens as Willow, Jena Malone as Zeta, Yetide Badaki as Queen Meeru, Christina Wren as Nicole, Monica Barbaro as Meagan, and Nolan North as Clemenson. They join returning film stars Dave Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Omari Hardwick, and Ella Purnell. The series follows Scott, voiced by Bautista, and his rescue crew during the fall of Vegas as they confront the mysterious source of the zombie outbreak.
Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, and Wesley Coller of The Stone Quarry executive produce alongside Jay Oliva and Shay Hatten.
Animation is by Meduzarts Animation Studio, part of Montreal’s Digital Dimension Entertainment Group, a company recognized with multiple Emmy and Visual Effects Society awards. As for what the animation was going to look like, a few concept designs (see below) have surfaced over time, giving us some insight into what we could’ve expected. One person attached to the show describes it as follows: “The project presented a unique blend of realistic-style animation with a 2D rendering output, offering a distinctive visual experience.”
Timeline of Development and the Cancelation
Beyond those initial announcements, the series was initially expected to be part of Netflix’s 2022 lineup. Indeed, The Hollywood Reporter suggested that a Spring 2022 date was being eyed. By August 2022, Jay Oliva (who doesn’t mention the show in his profile any longer) noted that a release wasn’t imminent.
To date, Netflix’s last official mention of the project came through their Geeked profile on November 30th, 2021, when previewing their slate of shows coming out in 2022.
While we still don’t know the exact date, the plug was pulled. Most people who list themselves as attached to the show suggest it was somewhere between the end of 2021 and early 2022. Paul Griffin, who was an animation supervisor on the project through December ’21, writes in his bio, “I worked on a fully animated series for Netflix, a story that was intended to bridge the live-action movies. Sadly, for reasons I’m not party to, this series was abandoned partway through.”
In May 2022, Snyder, on a Twitch stream with Ohio Dave, debuted the first and only official look at the series (beyond surfaced concept art – see below):
It’s officially been a year since we got our first (and only) look at Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas
(Via: https://t.co/amjdI0CUrL)
— Snyder Netflix Updates ⚒️ rebel moon era (@SnyderNetflix) May 30, 2022
At this point, it’s worth noting a bit of context for Netflix Animation around this time.
When Netflix Animation first entered the scene, they were creating a wide range of projects targeting all major demographics. However, like most big pushes at Netflix, they eventually underwent a pullback, and that’s precisely what happened with animation. By April 2022, Netflix Animation had undergone significant restructuring, with numerous projects canceled early in development or midway through, and numerous executive changes. All of this coincided with the so-called Great Netflix Correction, whereby the streaming business model was put into question over a bad quarter for Netflix following the streaming boom during COVID.
In March 2023, Zack Snyder offered an update on the series back in March 2023, saying on the podcast The Nerd Queens: “I will say that there’s been a slight stall on the Lost Vegas animated thing. For technical reasons, it went off the rails a little bit.”
Soon after, in a TotalFilm interview, Snyder claimed that the universes of the then-upcoming Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead were actually set in the same universe. He also offered insight into where the series exactly was in production by the time the plug was pulled, saying, “We did all the scripts and the animatics for Dead Vegas, and all the voices are recorded. So, you could watch it, even in its rough animatic form—you can watch the entire run.” He also referred to the show as the “animated series that we never did.”
By this point, it was very much looking like the series was done and dusted, although Zack Snyder then offered a glimmer of hope on the social media platform Vero, responding to one fan who asked whether the show is “dead dead”, to which he responded, “No”.
In mid-2024, The Wrap confirmed in an interview with both Zack and Deborah Snyder that “the animated series was quietly canceled, along with plans for subsequent films.” The subsequent film in question was Planet of the Dead.
Perhaps the final nail in the coffin came in late 2024 via Jay Olivia, who was promoting Twilight of the Gods (an animated show that is not expected to return for a second season), spoke to ScreenRant, who was candid about the fact that Netflix ultimately did pull the plug, he told the outlet:
“We completed mostly everything. We were in animation, but then Netflix eventually pulled the plug. So I don’t know. I offered to say, hey, let’s try to finish it. But I think their plan is to maybe do a Rebel Moon animated. I don’t know. I’m not a part of that.
But what I did with Zack on Lost Vegas was amazing, and it’s sad that you guys won’t see it. But there’s no reason that Netflix couldn’t revive it because all the pre-production was done. We were just in animation. All we had to do was to get it finished animated. But it looked great. In fact, what you see in Infinity: Paradise Lost is kind of like what it could look like, because the look of this was what I was trying to do with Lost Vegas.”
Just for the avoidance of doubt, a page for the show used to exist on Netflix itself with the show ID: 81153121. Navigating to that page now redirects you to the homepage, confirming the project has been deleted.
To date, that’s the last we’ve heard about the project’s status, and beyond snippets of information about what could’ve been, we doubt we’ll be hearing about Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas anymore.
As it stands, Army of the Dead lives on through a Six Flags experience (expected to return in 2025) and a VR experience in Las Vegas hosted by Area 15.
What did Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas look like?
For many years, the only official picture of Lost Vegas we had was from Zack Snyder’s still on his phone during the Twitch stream. That changed in December 2023, however, when Jojo Aguilar uploaded to his online profile on Blogspot pieces of concept art tagged with the name “Dead Army”.
Picture Credit: Jojo Aguilar / Blogspot
Picture Credit: Jojo Aguilar / Blogspot
Character concepts for Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas
What’s the future of Zack Snyder at Netflix?
Following the end of Army of Thieves, Snyder moved on to the Rebel Moon franchise for Netflix, which released two PG-13 films in late 2023 and two R-rated cuts in 2024. Beyond a mobile game launched in 2025, the franchise is on ice, we’re told, with Snyder focusing on other projects, both away from Netflix and one with the streamer.
The creator had a new LAPD cop thriller, but reports suggest budget concerns at Netflix are delaying any potential production start.
Are you disappointed that Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas never saw the light of day? Let us know in the comments.
